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Tuesday, 11 February 2014

In the summertime....

Something that is always a highlight of an Antarctic summer is boating and this year has been no exception!

After waiting for a record-breaking amount of time for the sea ice to blow away, the time has finally come to put the IRB's in the water and go chasing some Penguins, Seals, Icebergs and if you are lucky enough, Killer Whales!

We use inflatable Zodiacs with Yamaha 2-Stroke engines for many reasons such as weight, reliability and simplicity.

Finally seeing the Icebergs up close again just reminds you how colourful things can be when you are usually surrounded by white snow and brown rocks!

Saves swimming around!

Some of the colours are amazing!

Prydz Bay is literally teeming with wildlife! Between porpoising Penguins, slothful Seals, swooping Skuas and gigantic GP's there is always something to photograph!

Weddell Seal enjoying the sun.

They still keep a close eye on us.

The Adelies are so fast shots like this are just fluked

Penguin highway to the water!

Hawker Island near the Sorsdal glacier is a nesting ground for Giant Petrels. These petrels rival Albatrosses in size and can be quite nasty and opportunistic.

GP munching on a young penguin

Skua wants some too!

Alas, we eventually had to head home and we done so via the Sorsdal glacier and one of the icebergs it calved off during last winter.

This iceberg is 2.36km x 650m and contains around 400 million tonnes of ice! note the little red dot of one of our IRBs in between us and the berg!

Sorsdal Berg

Here is the glacier that the berg originated from.

Sorsdal Glacier

Since it has been so long since my last Blog (sorry guys) quite a bit has happened on station! We have had Australia Day, including the renowned Australia day swim and this years Davis Art and Craft exhibition!

First up, the swim!

Swim between the flags... ...and ice.

First in the water. Note the stick held by Stu in the dry suit. It was for cracking up the thin ice before everyone ran in.

"Swim" is a pretty liberal use of the word...

I wonder what just dipped below the water line?

Then we had an Art and Craft show. Just because we can I guess. There were some amazing 'offereings' and everyone was blown away by the talent of some people!

Adventure Time! :)

One of my pieces. Its an 8-Bit style drawing of all the wintering guys.

Webby's plane. Hopefully see it in the air soon!

And thats about it for now! Ill have another one to go again soon, may even be about the ship coming to get the summerers and leave us 21 crazy folk for the long, cold winter...